{"product_id":"9781499038750","title":"PERGOLESI IN THE PENTAGON: Life at the Front Lines of the Cultural Cold War","description":"Drafted into the US Army in 1954, John S. Bowman was assigned to Frankfurt, Germany, where with other young Americans he produced a comic opera by the 18th-century Italian composer, Pergolesi.  Its success led the Army’s Special Services to sponsor their “company’s” tour around US bases, and then to two more productions— Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne  and  Bach’s Coffee Cantata--and also to  US Information Agency-sponsored  performances before German audiences.  Working on his memoir to recapture those adventures and to convey what millions of Americans had experienced while serving in West Germany (1945-1990), Bowman  came to realize that he had been participating in the so-called cultural Cold War, so he placed his personal story into the context of  the astounding amount of  US government sponsored cultural activities aimed at thwarting the appeal of Soviet Communism in Europe  Not intended as an exposé, it is simply the most complete account of the incredible and sometimes hilarious “arsenal” of cultural weaponry deployed  in the Cold War—an account that almost all Americans will  find both amusing and astonishing.","brand":"Xlibris US","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47158142140656,"sku":"9781499038750","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781499038750_p0.jpg?v=1763706575","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781499038750","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}